Certain medical procedures, for example, an anesthetic procedure, require establishing and maintaining a patient's airway. During such procedures, a patient may be intubated with an endotracheal tube, or have a laryngeal mask placed into his or her mouth cavity to cover the laryngeal inlet for lung ventilation or delivery of other gaseous flow. In some cases, a patient undergoes an endotracheal intubation procedure in which an endotracheal tube is placed into and advanced through the patient's mouth and into the trachea. The endotracheal tube can be inserted under direct vision, by use of a laryngoscope, to provide visual confirmation of the endotracheal tube position within the trachea, minimizing potential trauma to surrounding tissues and anatomical structures. In other cases, the laryngeal mask can be used to ventilate a patient's lung by placing an elliptical mask into the patient's mouth, positioning the elliptical mask over the supraglottic structures within the hypopharynx region, and deploying the elliptical mask using a cuff connector to create an airtight seal over the glottis.
In some traditional practices, at the end of the anesthetic procedure or other medical procedure that involves an endotracheal tube or a laryngeal mask, a separate suction tool or catheter, such as a Yankauer suction tip, which is sized differently from the endotracheal tube or laryngeal mask, is advanced into the patient's throat region in an attempt to remove accumulated secretions and/or blood from the pharynx and posterior pharynx prior to the removal of the endotracheal tube or the laryngeal mask. In such circumstances, the practitioner may not be able to visualize or otherwise confirm that the suction tool or catheter is sufficiently removing secretions in the pharynx and posterior pharynx.